WO2022220167A1 - Medicine packaging machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention improves a medicine packaging machine so that it is possible to confer a sufficient sense of safety in regard to excessive discharge of medicine, even if a subsequent general-purpose medicine feeder is installed. A temporary storage structure 97 that temporarily stores, collects, and drops medicine is provided to a lower end of a medicine guiding structure 90 that performs drop guidance of discharged medicine from a general-purpose medicine feeder 86, which is a non-cassette-type/container fixed-type feeder. Furthermore, when excessive discharge of medicine from the medicine feeder 86 is detected, a packaging operation is temporarily stopped and the temporary storage structure 97 is caused to maintain a storage state, while an extraction operation of medicine feeder installation parts 80, 80 is allowed, after which the packaging operation is allowed to resume when extraction and pushing-back of the medicine feeder installation parts 80, 80 are detected.

Description

Drug packaging machine

This invention is equipped with a large number of drug feeders that store and sequentially discharge drugs such as tablets that can be discharged individually by type, and automatically discharges and packs desired drugs according to prescriptions and dispensing instructions. It relates to a packaging machine, and more particularly to a medication dispensing machine with a temporary storage structure between a medication guiding structure and a medication collecting structure.

Practical use of a tablet counting and inspection device that inspects the suitability of the contents of each package after the completion of packaging by a drug packaging machine, targeting long divided bandages in which drugs such as tablets are separated and packaged one by one. has been made When there is an excess or deficiency in the medicine in each package, a defect mark or the like is marked on the corresponding package with a marker (see Patent Document 1, for example).

In addition, some drug packaging machines are designed to attach a wireless tag to each package immediately after the packaging is completed while packaging one after another (see, for example, Patent Document 2). If it is different from the plan, the information reflecting it is written in the wireless tag, and the defective packaging is clarified by superimposing the attached portion of the wireless tag on the printed area of the packing bandage.

Furthermore, many drug packaging machines (see, for example, Patent Documents 3 and 4) include a housing, a plurality of drug feeders that store drugs and sequentially discharge the drugs, and a drug feeder storage section in which the plurality of drug feeders are stored. and a drug guide structure disposed between a pair of adjacent drug feeder storage units for guiding drugs discharged from a plurality of drug feeders included in the pair of drug feeder storage units to one outlet located below. and a drug feeder storage section in which a pair of drug feeder storage units and a drug guide structure are accommodated. This conventional drug packaging machine discharges the drug from a drug feeder containing the drug, regardless of whether the drug is of one type, a plurality of types, a single drug, or a plurality of drugs, according to a dispensing instruction. Alternatively, after the discharged drugs are guided downward by the drug guide structure at the relevant location, the drugs that have fallen from the plurality of drug guide structures are collected by the drug collection structure and thrown into the packaging device below, Prescription drugs are classified and packaged one after another.

In addition, a drug packaging machine having a temporary storage mechanism between the drug guide structure and the drug collection structure has also been put to practical use (see Patent Documents 3 and 10, for example).

The temporary storage mechanism is installed in the drug feeder storage section and is of a subordinate type that can be pulled out together with the drug feeder and the drug guide structure (see, for example, Patent Document 3), but it is installed below the drug feeder storage section. There is also a stand-alone type that is attached and not always drawn out together with the drug feeder or drug guiding structure.

In either type, when the number of stages of drug feeders in the drug feeder storage section is increased, the length of the drug drop path from the drug feeder to the drug collection structure and the drop time of the ejected drug are increased between the upper drug feeder and the lower drug feeder. There is a common operating characteristic that the waiting time for the completion of drug injection of the packaging machine tends to become longer due to the increased variation.

With respect to this operating characteristic, interposing the temporary storage structure can isolate the influence of variations in the drop time of the ejected drug in the drug guide structure from the drug collection structure and thus the packaging device located below.

Therefore, in a drug packaging machine equipped with a temporary storage structure, the number of stages of drug feeders in the drug feeder storage section can be increased without hindering the processing capacity of the packaging device.

It should be noted that this temporary storage structure is already installed only in the medicine feeder storage part in which cassette detachable type medicine feeders dedicated to specific medicines, which will be described later, are mounted in multiple stages. A temporary storage structure has not yet been provided for the drug feeder storage section in which only a small number of stages of non-cassette type multi-drug compatible type drug feeders are mounted, which will also be described later.

By the way, a large number of drug feeders (tablet feeders) mounted on a drug packaging machine are containers that hold a large number of drugs (tablets) of one type, usually put in at once, and drop the drugs sequentially when driven to discharge. and a base portion (driving portion) that supports the container portion and drives the discharge.

Such a medicine feeder is a so-called "special medicine type medicine feeder" in which the container part is a medicine cassette that can be attached to and detached from the base part, emphasizing that the work place for replenishment of medicine is not limited. has been widely used (see Patent Document 3, for example).

On the other hand, the so-called ``multi-medicine adaptable type, that is, general-purpose drug feeder,'' which emphasizes the wide range of common use for drugs of various shapes and sizes and the ease of adjustment work to suit individual drugs, has also been improved. (see, for example, Patent Documents 4 and 5), the use is increasing. This multi-drug adaptable type drug feeder is of a fixed type in which a container portion and a driving portion are integrated.

When a multi-medicine applicable type drug feeder is mounted on a drug packaging machine equipped with a large number of drug feeders, it is rare to adopt a multi-drug applicable type drug feeder for all or a large number of drug feeders. Only a small number of drug feeders employ drug feeders of multi-drug adaptation type, and many drug feeders employ drug feeders of specific drug-specific type.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-069618 JP 2011-120847 A JP 2013-078525 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2021-029378 Japanese Patent No. 6736075 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-209600 JP 2017-012696 A JP 2015-012893 A JP 2020-099585 A USP10,052,260 (WO2013-51313)

[First technical problem]
In a drug packing machine equipped with such a large number of drug feeders dedicated to specific drugs and a small number of drug feeders compatible with multiple drugs, there is a need for drugs that can be used with the cassette detachable type drug feeders dedicated to specific drugs. It is used preferentially for packaging, and in limited situations such as when a drug feeder dedicated to a specific drug cannot be used, a non-cassette type, container fixed type drug feeder compatible with multiple drugs is used. It becomes possible to use.

By doing so, it is possible to avoid or reduce the manual drug dispensing work (see, for example, Patent Documents 6 and 7), which is generally troublesome and mentally burdensome, which is useful for reducing the burden of dispensing work and improving efficiency. There are advantages such as

However, since there are clear differences between these two types of drug feeders, it is beneficial to use them properly as described above.

In other words, in the cassette detachable type medicine feeder, which has been widely used in the past, when aligning the medicines to be discharged, the medicines to be discharged are clearly separated from each other by mechanical means such as a partition wall member, and the medicines are separated into compartments. It is designed to accommodate one by one (see, for example, the one described in Patent Document 8 regarding a permanently dedicated one, and the one described in Patent Document 9 regarding a dedicated one in an assembled state). Such a medicine feeder dedicated to a specific medicine can also be called a "medical row front and rear division type medicine feeder".

On the other hand, in the non-cassette-type, container-fixed-type drug feeder applicable to multiple drugs, which has been put into practical use in recent years (see, for example, Patent Document 5), the container and the driving section are integrated as described above. In addition, when the annular rotor rotates, the solid medicine that is randomly accommodated is transported from the inner inclined rotor onto the upper peripheral edge of the outer annular rotor, and is moved along the drug transport path by the restricting member. By regulating the width, etc., they are lined up in a row before being sent to the drop discharge port. Such a non-cassette type/fixed multi-medicine compatible type drug feeder has a member for regulating the width of the drug conveying path, but mechanically separates the discharged drug and the subsequent drug waiting to be discharged. There are no members clearly partitioned by means, and there are no compartments. Such a multi-drug adaptable type drug feeder can also be called a "non-divided drug feeder before and after the drug row". As mentioned above, this type of drug feeder has not yet been combined with a temporary storage structure.

In such a multi-drug adaptable type drug feeder, in order to prevent excessive drug discharge due to continued rolling of the drug even when the rotation of the annular rotating body is stopped, it is necessary to Countermeasures include slowing down the rotational speed of the annular rotor when approaching and rotating the annular rotor in reverse when one package of drug is discharged, and forming a radially extending groove in the upper peripheral edge of the annular rotor. Measures have also been taken to suppress the undesirable rolling of the rollers (see Patent Document 5, for example). Therefore, even in the non-separable type, the excessive discharge prevention function is improved to a level comparable to that of the cassette type.

However, the clear presence of the partition member for dividing the row of medicines in the front and rear direction between the medicines in the aligned state can give the person who purchases or uses the medicine packaging machine an intuitive sense of security. A multi-drug type drug feeder that does not have such a partition member is difficult to provide an intuitive sense of security. In addition, it is difficult to give a sense of security to those who wish to use the later-developed multi-medicine-compatible type drug feeders, because they have less experience and achievements in use than the original specific-drug-specific type drug feeders.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to improve a medicine packing machine so that it can give a sufficient sense of security even if it is equipped with a medicine feeder that can accommodate multiple medicines.

[Second technical problem]
Furthermore, as described above, in the drug packaging machine provided with the temporary storage structure between the drug guide structure and the drug collection structure, in addition to a large number of drug feeders installed above, The temporary storage structure also has to switch between a state of continuing to hold the drug and a state of dropping the drug under the control of the control device. For this reason, all conventional drug packaging machines switch between a drug holding state and a drug dropping state by driving an electric motor.

Regarding the switching operation, only the medicine feeders that contain the medicine to be dispensed operate, and the medicine feeders that are not to be dispensed do not need to operate, so the frequency of operation of each medicine feeder is not very high. On the other hand, since the temporary storage structure operates each time packaging is performed in the same manner as the packaging device regardless of the type of medicine, the frequency of operation is high. As a result, if the electric motor operates frequently, it is necessary to frequently perform maintenance work such as inspection and repair.

Therefore, since the portion of the packaging device having a plurality of electric motors generally occupies the lower part of the housing, the electric motors are exposed by pulling the device together with the support base forward from the housing. A structure is adopted that allows

Therefore, maintenance of the electric motor of the packaging device can be done from the front or the side, so the work load is light.

On the other hand, the temporary storage structure incorporated between the drug guide structure and the drug collection structure can be pulled out forward from the housing and frequently operated by the user. Since cleaning work such as chemical dust, etc., which is also carried out, is given priority, the drive system of the temporary storage structure, the transmission member, and the electric motor were arranged deep inside the housing. Even in a drug packaging machine in which the main opening/closing member of the temporary storage structure can be pulled forward from the housing (see, for example, Patent Document 3), the electric motor and the transmission member remain inside the housing. rice field. Therefore, maintenance work related to the electric motor of the temporary storage structure is basically performed from the rear side of the housing or from the rear side.

However, large devices such as drug packaging machines are often installed next to the wall in the pharmacy, or placed back-to-back with other measures even if they are away from the wall. Therefore, there are few situations in which maintenance work can be easily performed from the rear of the housing. It is often performed after temporarily moving the equipment, and the burden of maintenance work tends to be heavy.

Therefore, another object of the present invention is to improve a medicine packaging machine so that maintenance work relating to the electric motor of the temporary storage structure can be easily performed.

The drug packaging machine of the present invention comprises a housing 10A, a plurality of drug feeders 13 and 86 for storing drugs and sequentially discharging the drugs, and drug feeder storage units 131 and 132 in which the plurality of drug feeders 13 and 86 are stored. , 133, and drug feeder storage units 131, 132, 133, respectively, to position drugs discharged from the plurality of drug feeders 13, 80 included in the drug feeder storage units 131, 132, 133 below. a plurality of drug guide structures 20, 90 guiding to one exit, and a plurality of drug feeder storage sections 12A to 12C in which drug feeder storage units 131, 132, 133 and drug guide structures 20, 90 are stored; , a drug collecting structure 30 arranged below the plurality of drug guiding structures 20, 90 in the housing 10A to collect drugs dropped from the plurality of drug guiding structures 20, 90; A packaging device 40 is provided below the collection structure 30 to divide and pack the medicines discharged from the medicine collection structure 30, and a control unit for controlling the operation of the plurality of medicine feeders and the packaging device. In the medicine feeder storage unit 133 included in one medicine feeder storage part 12C of the plurality of medicine feeder storage parts 12A to 12C, a plurality of stages of drawer shelves 82 which are divided into upper and lower parts and can be drawn out individually are provided with the container part and the container part sequentially. It includes a plurality of drug feeder mounting portions 80 on which a plurality of general-purpose type drug feeders integrated with an ejection mechanism portion are respectively mounted. Furthermore, when all of the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions 80 are pulled out, the drug feeder storage unit 133 provided corresponding to the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions 80 among the plurality of drug guiding structures 20 and 90 is provided. The drug guide structure 90 is also allowed to be pulled out from the housing 10A.

In particular, in the present invention, the drug guide structure 90 provided corresponding to the drug feeder storage unit 133 including the drug feeder mounting portions 80 among the drug guide structures 20 and 90 is provided at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 . A temporary storage structure 97 is provided to temporarily store and collectively drop drugs falling from the structure 90 to the drug collection structure 30 . The controller is then configured to also control the operation of the temporary storage structure. When it is detected during the packaging operation that the medicine is excessively discharged from the medicine feeder 86 included in the medicine feeder storage unit 133 including the multiple medicine feeder mounting parts 80, the controller temporarily suspends the packaging operation. Stop and allow the temporary storage structure 97 to maintain the detained state. In addition, the control unit permits the pullout operation of the plurality of medicine feeder mounting portions 80 included in the medicine feeder storage unit 133 of the corresponding medicine guiding structure 90, and then the plurality of medicine feeder mounting portions 80 are pulled out of the housing 10A. Resumption of packing operation is allowed when the fact that the container has been pushed back is detected.

In the medicine packing machine of the present invention, not only the driving part but also the container part is fixed in addition to the original medicine feeder 13, such as a medicine feeder dedicated to a specific medicine, which has a track record of use and is familiar to dispensing workers. In addition, when mounting the general-purpose type drug feeder 86 in the drug feeder storage section 12C of the general-purpose type drug feeder 86, which is of the type and does not have a clear partition member between the front and rear drugs in the aligned state before sequential discharge, in the drug feeder storage section 12C. The medicine feeder storage section 12C in which the medicine feeders 86 are mounted is divided into a plurality of stages of medicine feeder mounting parts 80 that can be individually pulled out, and general-purpose medicine feeders 86 are distributed and mounted on them. A temporary storage structure 97 is provided at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 that is shared by the drug feeder mounting parts 80 of the plurality of stages, and the control unit temporarily stops the packaging operation when excess drug discharge is detected. In addition, by maintaining a detained state in the temporary storage structure 97, excess discharged medicament will be retained in the temporary storage structure. Further, the control unit also performs control for enabling and facilitating manual removal of excess discharged medicine from the general-purpose medicine feeder.

Specifically, the control unit permits the withdrawal operation of the medicine feeder mounting part 80 of the relevant medicine feeder storage part 12C. After that, the corresponding drug feeder mounting portion 80 was manually pulled out from the housing, and the drug guide structure 90 made drawable thereby was also pulled out manually from the housing 10A, and was pulled out accordingly. Excess drug is manually sorted out from the temporary storage structure 97 and then the pulled out parts are pushed back into the housing 10A, also manually in reverse order. Then, it is automatically detected that the corresponding medicine feeder storage section 12C has been pulled out of the housing and pushed back, and the automatic packaging operation can be restarted accordingly.

In this manner, when the medicine is excessively discharged from the general-purpose medicine feeder 86, the excessively discharged medicine or the like is retained in the temporary storage structure 60 in accordance with the detection, and the temporary storage structure 97 is removed from the housing. By performing a series of controls that allow manual operation of pulling out and extracting excessively discharged medicine, even if automatic dispensing is stopped temporarily, undesired packaging can be easily and accurately avoided. can. Moreover, the excess discharged medicine extracted at that time can be returned to the original medicine feeder before pushing back the feeder storage section, so that it is not wasted.

Therefore, according to the present invention, in addition to the familiar cassette detachable medicine feeder 13, even if the latecomer general-purpose medicine feeder 86 that is fixed up to the container part is mounted, the user can feel secure enough. can give

A display member may be further provided in the drug packaging machine, and when excessive discharge of the drug is detected, guidance may be displayed on the display member to notify the relevant drug feeder 86 . In this way, a dispensing operator or the like can immediately and easily identify the excessively discharged medicine in the temporary storage structure by looking at the guide, and further, the excessively discharged medicine can be used as an appropriate general-purpose medicine. Even returning to the feeder can be performed quickly without hesitation.

When operating power is turned on and during other initial operations, the control unit CR causes the medicine feeder 86 included in the medicine feeder storage unit 133 including the medicine feeder mounting parts 80 to discharge the medicine without waiting for the instruction of the packaging operation. and the packaging device to perform the packaging operation. In this way, even if there is undetectable residual medicine at the initial operation due to past actions or operations that cannot be automatically detected, the undesired residual medicine is automatically discharged and packaged. Therefore, it is possible to securely dispose of them collectively without overlooking them.

A plurality of drugs also corresponding to the lower side of the plurality of drug feeder storage units 131 and 132 included in the plurality of drug feeder storage sections 12A and 12B other than one drug feeder storage section 12C among the plurality of drug feeder storage sections 12A to 12C. A plurality of temporary storage structure parts 60 for temporarily storing and collectively dropping drugs falling from the guide structure 20 to the drug collection structure 30 in a storage part 65, and a plurality of temporary storage structure parts (60, 97) are driven. A drive mechanism is also provided. The lower front portion 22 of the inner wall portion of at least one of the plurality of drug guide structures 20 is positioned rearwardly of the front portion 21 of the upper end portion of the inner wall portion of the drug guide structure 20. The front end of the storage portion 65 of the temporary storage structure 60 is positioned rearward from the front surface of the housing, and the electric motor 51 that provides the driving force for closing or opening the drive mechanism is positioned in front of the storage portion 65. It is preferably located in

With this configuration, even when the electric motor 51 is arranged in front of the storage section 65 of the temporary storage structure 60 , some of the drugs discharged from the plurality of drug feeders are positioned on the front side of the drug guide structure 20 . It is guided along the inner wall portion and drops into the storage portion 65 . As a result, even if the electric motor 51 is arranged in front of the reservoir 65, the medicine can be reliably introduced into the reservoir 65 from the plurality of medicine feeders. Also, by arranging the electric motor 51 of the drive mechanism on the front side of the temporary storage structure 30, maintenance and maintenance of the electric motor 51 are facilitated.

A plurality of medicine feeder storage units 12A and 12B are arranged side by side in the housing 10A, and the medicine guide structure 20 in one of the medicine feeder storage units 12A and 12B is A transmission shaft 64a is provided in a state extending back and forth along the storage portion 65 of one temporary storage structure 60 provided for the drug feeder storage portions 12A to 12C. A transmission mechanism 70 for transmitting power to a plurality of opening/closing mechanisms provided in the housing 10 may be provided behind the reservoir inside the housing 10, and an electric motor may drive the transmission shaft. In this way, even if the position where the electric motor is installed is moved from the rear to the front, the drive of the electric motor is transmitted rearward through the transmission shaft. As a result, the driven mechanism for sharing the driving of the electric motors among the multiple temporary storage structures can remain in the back of the housing as before, and the burden of remodeling such as changing the structure and members is small. There is an advantage to finish.

In front of the storage part 65 of one temporary storage structure 60 corresponding to the drug collection structure 20 of the drug feeder storage 12A positioned most laterally in the housing among the plurality of drug feeder storages 12A to 12C An electric motor 51 is preferably located. In this way, when there are a plurality of temporary storage structures, the electric motor comes in front of the most side temporary storage structure, so that the electric motor of the temporary storage structure can be easily maintained. , Not only the front side of the drug packaging machine but also the front sides are added, so the degree of freedom in maintenance work is further increased.

It is preferable that the transmission shaft 64a serves as the support shaft of the opening/closing mechanism in the temporary storage structure. If the support shaft of the temporary storage structure also serves as a transmission shaft, it becomes unnecessary to add a transmission shaft, and it is possible to avoid an increase in the number of members that tend to increase costs and design burdens.

A cam mechanism is provided between the electric motor 51 and the transmission shaft 64a for converting one rotation of the output shaft of the electric motor 51 into a reciprocating rotation of the transmission shaft 64a, and the transmission mechanism 70 is composed of a link mechanism. may be In this way, even if the driven mechanism is composed of a link mechanism that tends to have play, the use of a cam mechanism that easily permits play in the transmission section eliminates the need for a high-precision electric motor. Moreover, since the control of the electric motor does not have to be precise, it is possible to avoid or suppress cost increases.

The link mechanism of the transmission mechanism 70 activates the opening/closing mechanism of the temporary storage structure 97 provided at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 provided corresponding to the drug feeder storage unit 133 including the multiple drug feeder mounting parts 80 . It is preferably driven. In this way, all temporary storage structures can be operated synchronously by one electric motor. As a result, the number of parts can be reduced.

1 shows the structure of the drug packaging machine according to the first embodiment of the present invention, (A) is an external perspective view, (B) is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure, and (C) is a feeder storage section of the drug feeder storage section on the right side. FIG. 4D is an external perspective view of the drug collecting mechanism when it is pulled out; (A) is an external perspective view when the leftmost drug feeder storage unit is pulled out from the drug packaging machine, (B) is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of the rear portion of the leftmost drug feeder storage unit, (C) is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of the front portion of the leftmost drug feeder storage section, and (D) is an external perspective view of the leftmost drug feeder storage section being pulled out and the left side plate of the drug storage removed. 1 shows the structure of a specific drug dedicated type drug feeder, (A) is a side view of a cassette mounted state, (B) is a partial longitudinal side view of a cassette non-mounted state, and (C) is a transverse cross-sectional view of a cassette. , and (D) are partial vertical cross-sectional side views of the main part of the cassette. The structure of the general-purpose drug feeder is shown, (A) is a plan view of the main part, and (B) is a vertical cross-sectional view of the main part. (A) to (D) are left side views of the medicine packing machine, and (E) is a perspective view of the front part of the medicine cabinet. (A) and (B) are left side views of the drug packaging machine, and (C) to (E) are external perspective views of the drug collecting mechanism. (A) is a left side view of the drug feeder storage section and the temporary storage structure storage section, and (B) is a longitudinal left side view of the drug guide structure and the temporary storage structure section. (A) to (C) are a plan view, a front view, and a longitudinal sectional view of a single-row temporary storage structure and its drive mechanism. (A) to (C) are a plan view, a front view, and a longitudinal sectional view of a single-row temporary storage structure and its drive mechanism. (A) to (C) are a plan view, a front view, and a longitudinal sectional view of a single-row temporary storage structure and its drive mechanism. (A) is a plan view of two temporary storage structures, their drive mechanisms, and transmission link mechanisms, and (B) and (C) are front views of the link mechanisms. It is a block diagram which shows the relationship of a control system.

An embodiment of the drug packaging machine of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 to 12 embody the present invention. In the drawings of the embodiments, fasteners such as bolts, connectors such as hinges, electrical circuits such as motor drivers, and electronic circuits such as controllers are omitted from the drawings for the sake of simplification. The illustration is focused on what is necessary for the explanation and what is related.

1 and 2 show the overall structure of the drug packaging machine 10. FIG. Among them, FIG. 1A is an external perspective view of the medicine packaging machine 10 in a normal state such as an automatic packaging operation state and its standby state, and FIG. FIG. 1C is an external perspective view of the medicine packaging machine 10 in a state where the medicine feeder mounting portion 80 of the medicine feeder storage portion 12C on the right side is pulled out from the medicine cabinet 11 to the front. FIG. 1(D) is an external perspective view of the drug guide structure 90 with the side plate 95 removed.

FIG. 2(A) is an external perspective view of the drug packaging machine 10 with the leftmost drug feeder storage section 12A pulled out from the drug storage 11, and FIG. 2(B) is the leftmost drug feeder. FIG. 2(C) is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of the rear part of the storage section 12A, and FIG. 2C is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of the front part of the leftmost medicine feeder storage section 12A.

FIG. 3 shows the structure of a cassette detachable type medicine feeder 13 dedicated to a specific medicine. A side view of a partial longitudinal section of the medicine feeder 13 in a state where the cassette 13b is removed from the base portion 13a, and (C) is a cross-sectional view of the cassette 13b, and (D) is a part of the main part of the cassette 13b. It is a longitudinal side view.

FIG. 4 shows the structure of a general-purpose non-cassette type/container portion fixed type drug feeder 86, (A) being a plan view of the main part, and (B) being a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the main part.

FIG. 5 shows the structure of the drug feeder mounting portion 80 and the drawing procedure, in which (A) to (D) are left side views of the drug packaging machine 10, and (E) is a perspective view of the front portion of the drug storage 11. is.

FIG. 6 shows the structure of the medicine guide structure 90 and the procedure for drawing it out from the housing, where (A) and (B) are left side views of the medicine packaging machine 10, (C) to (E) are medicine 4 is an external perspective view of a guide structure 90; FIG. FIG. 1(D) described above is also an external perspective view of the medicine guide structure 90 .

FIG. 7A is a left side view of the drug feeder storage section 12A and the temporary storage structure storage section 50, and FIG. 7B is a left side view of the drug guide structure 20 and the temporary storage structure section 60. It is a vertical left side view.

8 to 10 (A) to (C) each show a set of plan views, front views, and longitudinal sectional views arranged from top to bottom, and the top plan view is the leftmost one. The middle front view shows the temporary storage structure 60 at the lower end of the drug feeder storage unit 12A and the drive mechanisms 51 to 54 that directly drive the temporary storage structure 60 and the drive mechanism. Regarding the parts 53 and 54, the lower front view is a longitudinal sectional view of the temporary storage structure 60 described above.

11, (A) is a plan view of the two temporary storage structures 60, 60, their drive mechanisms 51 to 54, and a transmission link mechanism 70, and (B) and (C) are the link mechanisms. 70 is a front view of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the relationship of the control system.

Since the drug packaging machine 10 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) is a partial improvement of the drug packaging machine described above, the drug packaging machine 10 (see also Patent Documents 3 to 5) has a drug package in the upper part of the housing. A storage 11 is provided, and a drug collecting structure 30 and a packaging device 40 are built in a vertical arrangement in the lower part of the housing. Dispensing instructions and the like to the control unit CR in FIG. 12 responsible for controlling these operations are given by communication from a not-shown dispensing server or the like, or by manual input via the touch panel 14 (operation input unit, display unit). is also possible. The operating state of the drug packaging machine 10 and information for the dispensing operator are also displayed on the touch panel 14 by the controller.

In the drug packaging machine 10 of this example (see FIGS. 1 and 2), the temporary storage structure storage section 50 is also arranged in the middle part of the housing and positioned above the drug collection structure 30, Located just below 11. A plurality of (three in this example) drug feeder storage units 12A, 12B, and 12C are arranged side by side on the left and right sides of the drug storage unit 11. The storage section 12C is a unit of the drug feeder mounting section 80, and can be individually pulled out from the drug storage 11 as needed, such as when replenishing drugs or performing maintenance work (FIGS. 1(C) and 2( A)).

A large number of drug feeders 13 are mounted in the left drug feeder storage section 12A and the center drug feeder storage section 12B. The drug feeders 13 are arranged in rows (see the solid line representation in FIG. 7A), and the drug feeders 13 are arranged in six columns and six rows on the right side (see the broken line representation in FIG. 7B). ).

The drug feeder storage units 12A and 12BC include a plurality of drug feeders 13 that store drugs and sequentially discharge the drugs, drug feeder storage units 131 and 132 that store the plurality of drug feeders 13, and a pair of adjacent drug feeders. A drug guide structure disposed between feeder storage units 131 and 132 for guiding drugs discharged from a plurality of drug feeders 13 included in a pair of drug feeder storage units 131 and 132 to one outlet 20C located below. A body 20 is stored. In the illustrated example (see FIGS. 1 and 7), in the central medicine feeder storage section 12B, a medicine feeder storage unit 132 (see FIG. 7A) in which the medicine feeders 13 are arranged in six rows and six rows on the left side. See the solid line display) are arranged, and a drug feeder storage unit 131 in which the drug feeders 13 are arranged in six rows and six rows is also arranged on the right side (see the broken line display in FIG. 7B).

In addition, the medicine feeder storage units 131 and 132 of the medicine feeder storage part 12A are provided with a medicine feeder mounting avoidance part in order to avoid interference with the inclined plate 22 provided at the front portion of the lower end of the medicine guide structure 20. 12a, where no drug feeder 13 is provided (see FIGS. 7A and 7B). The inclined plate 22 of the drug guide structure 20 functions to guide the drug falling from above to the outlet 20C facing the entrance opening 65A of the reservoir 65 of the temporary reservoir structure 60 .

The drug feeder 13 (see FIG. 3) is a cassette detachable type drug feeder dedicated to a specific drug (medicine row front and rear division type drug feeder). , and 12B, and the cassette 13b, which can contain a large number of randomly injected medicines, can be attached to and detached from the base portion 13a (Fig. 3(A)). , (B)). When the cassette 13b is removed from the base portion 13a, the medicine replenishment work is carried out. When the cassette 13b is attached to the base portion 13a, the contained medicines 5 can be discharged one by one according to the control of the controller. The characteristic of this drug feeder 13 dedicated to a specific drug is that the front and rear compartments 13c, 13c for lining up the drugs 5 for sequential discharge are mechanically separated by a partition member 13d ( See FIGS. 3(C) and 3(D)).

The drug guiding structure 20 (see FIGS. 1 and 7) is box-shaped with a sliding passage between two side walls 20A and 20B, one for each of the drug feeder housings 12A, 12B and 12C. It has been incorporated. The drug guide structure 20 guides the drugs discharged from the numerous drug feeders 13 arranged in the left and right drug feeder storage units 131 and 132 to the side walls 20A and 20B along the drug feeder row with a gap in the vertical direction. It is configured to be received in the hollow inside from the formed six drug guide path slide-down openings 25, guided downward, and dropped. In each of the left and right drug feeder storage units 131 and 132, a drug guide path sliding plate 24 for guiding the drug discharged from the drug feeder 13 to the drug guide path slide opening 25 is vertically installed under the shelf on which the drug feeder 13 is mounted. There are 6 sheets spaced apart from each other.

In the medicine feeder storage part 12C on the right side of the medicine cabinet 11 of the medicine packaging machine 10, upper and lower two stages of medicine feeder mounting parts 80, 80 and a medicine guiding structure 90 shared by them are mounted. In the example (see FIGS. 1, 5, and 6), the drug feeder mounting parts 80, 80 are arranged on the right side, and the drug guide structure 90 is arranged on the left side thereof.

The medicine feeder mounting part 80 can be pulled out individually from the medicine feeder storage part 12C of the medicine cabinet 11 (see FIGS. 5A to 5C). In addition, when the upper and lower drug feeder mounting portions 80, 80 are all pulled out, the drug guide structure 90 can also be pulled out from the drug storage 11 (Fig. 6(A), ( B)).

In the drug feeder mounting portion 80, a plurality of drug feeders 86 (four in the examples of FIGS. 1(B), 5, and 6) are arranged in a line in the front-rear direction on the drawer member, that is, the drawer shelf 82. is installed. On the front surface of the front plate 84 (see FIGS. 5(D) and (E)), there are a handle 81 for holding a finger when pulling out or pushing in, and an automatic operation under the control of the control unit CR. A lock 85 that can switch the pull-out operation permission/prohibition state even by manual operation outside the control, and a rocking plate 83 that can be used as a small article holder on which small articles such as dispensing instructions are placed temporarily during dispensing work are attached. there is A push-in detector PS (FIG. 12) for detecting whether the medicine feeder mounting portion 80 is pushed into or out of the medicine cabinet 11, and a manual open/close type lid 86f attached to the medicine feeder 86. A sensor (not shown) for detecting an open/closed state is also attached.

The drug feeder 86 used in the present embodiment (see FIG. 4) is a general-purpose non-cassette type, integrated, fixed type drug feeder (a drug feeder that does not divide before and after the drug row). The drug feeder 86 shown in FIG. 4 is positioned at the top and has a peripheral wall in which the central portion is hollowed out in a circular shape to be hollow, and the upper end is loosely fitted in the hollow. an annular rotating body 86b installed directly under the hollow of the annular rotating body 86b, an inclined rotating body 86a installed in the hollow of the annular rotating body 86b and closing the bottom of the hollow, an inclined rotating body 86a inside this and an outer A bearing mechanism for axially rotatably supporting the annular rotating body 86b, a rotation driving mechanism for driving the rotation thereof, and a regulating member 86c provided on the upper side of the peripheral wall.

The annular surface at the upper end of the annular rotating body 86b serves as a drug transport path for transferring side by side the drugs 5 scooped up by the axial rotation of the inclined rotating body 86a. 86c enters to restrict the width of the medicine conveying path, so that excess medicine 5 is pushed back onto the inner inclined rotor 86a, and medicines 5, 5, . . . on the medicine conveying path are aligned in a line. there is The medicines 5 arranged in a row are sent one by one to the drop discharge port 86d, and the fallen medicines 5 are quickly detected by the photosensor 86e. Since there is no mechanical separating member such as the partition wall member 13d described above between the medicines 5, 5 arranged one behind the other on the medicine conveying path, the annular rotating body 86b is rotated to prevent excessive discharge of the medicine 5. During speed control, deceleration before completion of discharge and reverse rotation immediately after completion of discharge are appropriately performed.

In such a general-purpose type medicine feeder 86 as medicine replenishment work, after the lock 85 of the medicine feeder mounting part 80 to be loaded is released, the medicine feeder mounting part 80 is moved to the medicine cabinet 11 by pulling the handle 81 . Then, the lid 86f of the target medicine feeder 86 exposed with it is opened, and the medicine is put into it.

After the medicine is replenished, when the lid 86f is closed and the medicine feeder mounting portion 80 is pushed into the medicine cabinet 11, this is detected and the lock 85 is locked according to the control of the controller CR shown in FIG. , the locked medicine feeder 86 sequentially discharges the contained medicines 5 one by one.

The drug guide structure 90 (see FIGS. 1 and 6) is installed in the drug feeder storage section 12C in a state hidden behind the front plates 84, 84 of the upper and lower drug feeder mounting sections 80, 80 as described above. there is A handle 93 provided on the front surface of the drug guide structure 90 is also hidden behind the front plate 84 . This drug guide structure 90 is basically equivalent to the one in which a temporary storage structure 97 corresponding to the temporary storage structure 60 is incorporated in the lower part of the drug guide structure 20 . In terms of shape, it is shaped or deformed to be smaller so that it can be accommodated in the medicine feeder storage section 12C. Functionally, like the medicine guide structure 20, it guides the medicine discharged from the feeder to the medicine collection structure 30 below. It is. The drug guide structure 90 receives discharged drugs from the general- purpose drug feeders 86, 86, . . .

In addition, the drug guide structure 90 is supported by a drawer mechanism 96 (see FIG. 6(A)) and can be pulled out from the drug cabinet 11 (see FIG. 6(B)). The drug guide structure 90 has a length in the front-rear direction shorter than that of the drug feeder mounting portion 80, and is always positioned behind the left ends of the front plates 84, 84 of the right drug feeder mounting portions 80, 80 ( 1(A), (C), and FIGS. 5(A), (D)). As a result, the drug guide structure 90 can be pulled out only when all the upper and lower drug feeder mounting portions 80, 80 are pulled out as described above (see FIGS. 6A and 6B).

The drug guide structure 90 (see FIGS. 6C, 6D, 1D, and 6E) includes a thin box-shaped main body 91 and both side surfaces of the main body 91. Among them, a detachable side plate 95 is provided on the left open side surface farther from the drug feeder mounting portions 80, 80, and closes the corresponding side surface at the time of mounting. The right side plate of the body portion 91 is formed with drug receiving ports 92, 92 for receiving drugs discharged from the drug feeder mounting portions 80, 80. A handle 93 is provided at the front end of the body portion 91. A side plate holding member 94 that receives the lower end portion of the side plate 95 from below is provided at a position below the open side surface of the lower end portion of the side plate 91 .

For example, a small lever-operated locking member 98 is equipped on the upper part of the side plate 95 . When the lower end of the side plate 95 is placed on the side plate holding member 94 to receive it, the side plate 95 is erected and the hooking member 98 is hooked to the body portion 91, the open side of the body portion 91 is closed. (See FIG. 6(C)). Further, when all the hooking members 98, 98 are removed, the upper portion of the side plate 95 is separated from the open side surface of the main body portion 91 (see FIG. 9(D)). Since the side plate holding member 94 has a hook structure and receives the lower end of the side plate 95 with a slight play, the side plate 95 is held in a slightly inclined state.

Furthermore, when the drug guide structure 90 lifts the side plate 95 by placing a hand on the left and right ends of the side plate 95, the side plate 95 is completely separated from the main body portion 91 (see FIG. 1(D)), and the main body portion 91 is removed. It is configured so that the inside is largely exposed (see FIG. 6(E)). In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1(B), a temporary storage structure 97 is arranged at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 . (See FIG. 1(D) and FIG. 6(E)). The temporary storage structure 97 is incorporated in the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 so that it can be pulled forward together with the drug guide structure 90, and is slightly smaller in size. , is different from the temporary storage structure 60 disposed below the drug feeder storage units 12A and 12B shown in FIG.

The drug collection structure 30 (see FIG. 1) consists of a larger funnel-shaped member and is positioned below three temporary storage structures 60 below the plurality of drug feeder storages 12A-12C of the drug vault 11. there is The drug collection structure 30 receives the drugs dropped from the drug feeders 13, . It is configured to collect drugs that have fallen from the mounted drug feeders 86, 86 through the drug guide structure 90 and further through the temporary storage structure 60, and to throw those drugs into the packaging device 40 below. ing.

The packaging device 40 is provided below the drug collection structure 30 described above, and when the drug whose drop position is narrowed by the drug collection structure 30 is dropped from the drug collection structure 30, the drug is sent to the controller. It is designed to be sorted and packaged in the packing belt according to the control of

In this example, a temporary storage structure storage unit 50 for storing two temporary storage structure units is also incorporated in the lower part of the housing containing the packaging device 40 and the drug collection structure 30 described above (Fig. 1 ( A), (B) reference). Moreover, the temporary storage structure storage section 50 is arranged above the drug collection structure 30 and installed between the drug guide structure 20 and the drug guide structure 90 and the drug collection structure 30 . ing. As shown in FIG. 1B, a tubular or bottomless box-shaped guide 56 that guides the drug falling from the temporary storage structure 97 to the drug collection structure 30 is arranged in the temporary storage structure housing 50 . It is

The same number of temporary storage structure units 60 as the drug guide structures 20 are incorporated in the temporary storage structure storage unit 50, and the drug guide structures 20 and the temporary storage structure units 60 are vertically positioned in a one-to-one relationship. (see FIG. 1).

It can also be considered that the drug guide structure 90 is a slightly modified drug guide structure 20 and the temporary storage structure 97 is a slightly modified temporary storage structure 60 . Therefore, in the drug packaging machine 10 in this case, the temporary storage structure 60.97 that temporarily stores and collects the drugs falling from the drug guide structure 20.90 to the drug collection structure 30 and drops them is all of the drug guides. It can be considered to be provided below the structures 20,90.

The temporary storage structure 60 (see FIGS. 8 to 11) includes a box frame 61 with an open upper surface that is long in the front-rear direction, a swash plate 62 fixed as one side wall of the box frame 61, and a An opening/closing member 63 capable of opening and closing the lower surface of the box frame 61 and a support shaft 64 connected to the upper end of the opening/closing member 63 are provided. The support shaft 64 is axially rotated within a limited range to swing the opening/closing member 63 to close the bottom surface of the box frame 61 (see FIGS. 8A and 9A), or open the bottom surface to open the box frame 61. 63a is developed (see FIG. 8(B)), or the opening 63a is enlarged (see FIG. 8(C)). A storage portion 65 is configured by the box frame 61 , the swash plate 62 and the opening/closing member 63 . Further, in the present embodiment, the driving mechanisms (51, 52, 70) apply closing driving force or opening driving force to the opening/closing mechanisms (62 to 64) of the temporary storage structure 60. FIG. A temporary storage structure 97 provided at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 also has the same structure as the temporary storage structure 60 described above, although it is small.

When the drugs discharged from the many drug feeders 13 fall while being guided by the upper drug guide structure 20, the temporary storage structure 60 accepts and temporarily stores the drugs in a closed state. (See FIG. 8(A)), the lower surface is opened at an appropriate time, and the indwelling drug is released collectively from the opening 63a so that it can drop to the drug collecting structure 30. As shown in FIG. Temporary storage by the temporary storage structure 60 eliminates variations in drug collection times caused by variations in discharge timing of each drug feeder 13, differences in drop path lengths in each drug guide structure 20, and variations in drop time. Then, a package of drugs is collected and dropped to the drug collecting structure 30 all at once. As a result, the waiting time for loading the packaging device 40 is shortened, which is useful for increasing the speed of drug packaging.

Similarly, the temporary storage structure 97 provided at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 also stores the drug discharged from the drug feeder 86 when it falls while being guided by the drug guide structure 90 above. is received in a closed state and temporarily retained, and the lower surface is opened at an appropriate time, and the indwelling drug is dropped collectively from the opening to drop to the drug collection structure 30. - 特許庁However, the temporary storage structure 97 in this case is small in size as described above, and when the medicine guide structure 90 is pulled out of the medicine feeder storage part 12C, it can be pulled out of the housing along with it. In this point, it differs from the temporary storage structure 60 which is always fixed.

The basic configuration of the temporary storage structure 60 and the temporary storage structure 97 provided at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 generally follow conventional products. Although the basic configuration is assumed, in the medicine packaging machine 10 of the present embodiment, the electric motor 51 responsible for driving the temporary storage structures 60 and 97 is different from the conventional product in that the temporary storage structures It is positioned in front of the temporary storage structure 60, not behind 60 and 97 (see FIGS. 2(C), 7, 8 and 9(A)).

The location where the electric motor 51 is incorporated is preferably at the end in the left-right direction within the housing. Installed only in front.

A cam mechanism 52 for transmission is provided between the rotation output shaft of the electric motor 51 and the front end portion of the support shaft 64 (64a) of the temporary storage structure 60 behind it (see FIG. 9A). ).

Then (see FIG. 8), when the cam 53 of the cam mechanism 52 is rotated once by the electric motor 51, the follower 54 of the cam mechanism 52 swings several tens of degrees each time. Accordingly, the support shaft 64 reciprocates by the same angle, and the opening/closing member 63 opens and closes the bottom of the temporary storage structure 60 accordingly, so that the drug storage state of the temporary storage structure 60 is switched.

Moreover, the support shaft 64 is incorporated in the temporary storage structure 60 along the longitudinally long temporary storage structure 60 so that the front end of the support shaft 64 is connected to the electric motor 51 and the cam mechanism 52 . When the shaft is rotated within a limited range by the 11(B) and 11(C). Therefore, the support shaft 64 also serves as a transmission shaft 64a for transmitting power to the link mechanism 70 (transmission mechanism) behind the temporary storage structure 60. As shown in FIG. On the other hand, the support shaft 64 of the other temporary storage structure 60 corresponding to the other medicine feeder storage 12B is a driven shaft driven by the link mechanism 70 (see FIG. 11). Such a cam mechanism 52 converts one-rotational motion of the output shaft of the electric motor 51 into partial rotational reciprocating motion of the transmission shaft 64a. Further, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11A, the rear cam mechanism 64b located at the end of the link mechanism 70 is the lower end of the drug guide structure 90 arranged inside the drug feeder storage section 12C. is engaged with a driven link (not shown) in the temporary storage structure 97 provided in the , and the force of the electric motor 51 is transmitted to the driven link. As a result, the two temporary storage structures 60 and the temporary storage structure 97 provided at the lower end of the medicine guide structure 90 are driven by one electric motor 51 . When the drug guide structure 90 is slid forward, the driven link (not shown) in the temporary storage structure 97 is disengaged from the rear cam mechanism 64b located at the end of the link mechanism 70. It has a structure that engages with the rear cam mechanism 64b when the drug guide structure 90 is positioned at the back of the housing.

Furthermore, the above arrangement relationship, i.e., temporary storage, can be achieved without impairing the basic requirement that the drugs dropped from the drug guide structure 20 and the drug guide structure 90 are reliably injected into the lower temporary storage structures 60 and 97 . In order to position the drive mechanism (51 to 54) including the electric motor 51 in front of the structural section 60, at least the drug feeder storage section 12A at the left end and the drug guide structure 20 there (See FIGS. 1 and 2), the drug feeder housings 12B and 12C and the drug guiding structures 20 and 90 therein without the electric motor 51 are also subject to additional requirements that are not required.

Specifically (see FIGS. 2 and 7), the lower end portion of the inner wall portion of the medicine guide structure 20 incorporated in the medicine feeder storage portion 12A in which the electric motor 51 is arranged (specifically, the inclined portion) The plate 22) is located behind the front portion 21 of the upper end portion and intermediate portion of the inner wall portion of the medicine guide structure 20. As shown in FIG. The upper end of the front portion (22) of the lower end portion of the inner wall portion of the drug guiding structure 20 is connected to the upper end portion of the inner wall portion of the drug guiding structure 20 and the lower end of the front portion 21 of the intermediate portion. The lower end of the forward portion 22 of the lower end of the inner wall of the body 20 is recessed just above the front end of the box frame 61 of the lower temporary storage structure 60 . As a result, since the front part (inclined plate 22) of the lower end portion of the inner wall portion of the medicine guide structure 20 is inclined, the medicine discharged from the medicine feeder 13 in the upper stage falls on the medicine guide path sliding plate 24. When the medicine is guided into the inner space of the medicine guiding structure 20 and dropped to the medicine feeder mounting avoidance part 12a, the medicine is dropped by the upper surface of the inclined plate of the lower end portion (inclined plate 22) of the inner wall portion of the medicine guiding structure 20 near the front. The drug enters the temporary storage structure 60 after changing its falling direction obliquely rearward.

A link mechanism 70 (see FIGS. 7 and 11) converts a limited angular axial rotational movement of a transmission shaft 64a driven by a cam mechanism 52 that converts one rotational movement of the output shaft of an electric motor 51 into an oscillation. It is a transmission mechanism for transmitting to the spindle 64 of the temporary storage structure 60 corresponding to the other drug feeder storage sections 12B and 12C via the cam mechanism 64b. The link mechanism 70 is provided deep inside the housing 10</b>A and positioned behind the plurality (three in this example) of the temporary storage structures 60 . The link mechanism 70 (see FIG. 6) includes a horizontally long rod-shaped connecting member 71, the same number of short swing members 72 arranged one-to-one in the three temporary storage structures 60, and a plurality of swing members. 72 and the same number of urging springs 74 arranged one-to-one. A swinging end portion 72a of the swinging member 72 is connected to the connecting member 71 so as to be axially rotatable, and a swinging fulcrum portion 72b of the swinging member 72 is located at the back of the housing 10A (not shown). It is connected to the support member so as to be axially rotatable (see FIG. 4(A)).

When the transmission shaft 64a, i.e., the leftmost support shaft 64, is rotated within a limited range against the reaction force of the urging spring 74, the other support shafts 64, 64 are similarly rotated accordingly. (see FIG. 11(C)). Further, when the rotational drive of the transmission shaft 64a is stopped, all the support shafts 64, 64, 64 including the transmission shaft 64a are returned to their original states by the biasing force of the biasing spring 74 (Fig. 11(B)). )reference). Therefore, each time the output shaft of the electric motor 51 rotates once, the cam mechanism 52, the transmission shaft 64a and the link mechanism 70 are actuated to swing all the opening/closing members 63. Opening and closing operations are performed in the temporary storage structures 60 , 60 , 97 .

The mode of use and operation of the drug packaging machine 10 of the above embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2(D) is an external perspective view of the leftmost medicine feeder storage part 12A out of the three medicine feeder storage parts 12A to 12C pulled out from the medicine cabinet 11 and the left side plate 11a of the medicine cabinet 11 being removed. is.

FIG. 6(A) is a left side view of the drug packaging machine 10 with all upper and lower drug feeder mounting parts 80, 80 pulled out from the drug storage 11, and FIG. 6(B) shows the drug guide structure 90 as well. Fig. 3 is a left side view of the medicine packing machine 10 pulled out from the medicine cabinet 11; 6(C) is an external perspective view of the drug guiding structure 90 pulled out, and FIG. 6(D) is an external perspective view of the drug guiding structure 90 from which the side plate 95 is being removed from the main body 91. . 1(D) and 6(E) are external perspective views of the medicine guide structure 90 with the side plate 95 removed from the main body 91. FIG.

The rough usage and dispensing operation of this drug packaging machine 10 are basically the same as those of the conventional drug packaging machine, and for drugs that are frequently used, a drug feeder 13 dedicated to a specific drug with a detachable cassette is used. is preferred. In that case, the medicine feeder storage units 12A and 12B are pulled out from the medicine cabinet 11, the medicine feeders 13 exposed are filled with a predetermined medicine, and then the medicine feeder storage units 12A and 2B are pushed back into the medicine cabinet 11. back. For other drugs, it is preferable to use a general-purpose drug feeder 86 of a non-cassette type, fixed container type. In that case, the medicine feeder mounting portion 80 is pulled out from the medicine feeder storage portion 12C of the medicine storage 11, the exposed medicine feeder 86 is filled with a predetermined medicine, and then the medicine feeder mounting portion 80 is moved to the medicine feeder storage portion. Push back to 12C.

In either case, detailed illustrations and explanations are omitted, but when an operation is performed on the touch panel 14 while viewing the guidance display, etc., and a dispensing instruction based on a prescription is given to the medicine packaging machine 10, the instructed medicine is delivered. The drugs are discharged from the drug feeders 13, 86, which are accommodation destinations, and guided to the lower temporary storage structures 60, 60, 97 by the drug guide structure 20 and the drug guide structure 90, where they are temporarily stored. Then, after an appropriate amount of time has elapsed, the electric motor 51 rotates the output shaft once. swings the opening/closing member 63 , all the drugs stored by the temporary storage structure portions 60 , 60 , 97 fall from the temporary storage structure storage portion 50 all at once, and are collected by the drug collection structure 30 . It is guided to the packaging device 40 .

In this way, the drugs are classified and packaged one after another. Moreover, at that time, the drug drop path from the drug feeders 13, 86 to the temporary storage structures 60, 97 and the drug drop path from the temporary storage structures 60, 97 to the packaging device 40 are temporary during most of the time. Since they are separated by the opening and closing operations of the storage structures 60 and 97, most of the drug dropping on the side of the drug guiding structure 20 or the drug guiding structure 90 and the drug dropping on the side of the drug collecting structure 30 can be operated in parallel. Therefore, packing time is shortened.

Then, when the electric motor 51 needs to be periodically inspected or repaired, the medicine feeder storage section 12A in which the electric motor 51 is arranged is pulled forward from the medicine cabinet 11, and the medicine sachet operation is repeated. , remove the left side plate 11a from the chemical cabinet 11 (see FIG. 2(D)). As a result, the electric motor 51, which is installed near the front side of the drug packaging machine 10 and immediately inside the left side of the drug packaging machine 10, is exposed, so maintenance work on the electric motor 51 is performed from the front portion of the side surface of the drug packaging machine 10. and maintenance work.

As described above, in the medicine packaging machine 10 of the present embodiment, manual work related to the electric motor 51 can be performed without going to the rear side of the housing, so maintenance work related to the electric motor 51 can be performed easily.

In addition, during the medicine packing operation, excessive discharge of the medicine is detected based on the signal of the photosensor 86e (FIGS. 4B and 12) for any of the general-purpose non-cassette type/fixed container type medicine feeders 86. When detected, the drug dispensing operation is immediately suspended by the control device before the temporary storage structure 60 including the temporary storage structure 97 opens.

In that state, those temporary storage structures 60 maintain their closed state by the action of the biasing spring 74 against the opening/closing member 63, so that the excess discharged drug is released into the temporary storage structures 97 of the drug guide structure 90 together with the appropriate discharged drug. stay in.

Further, in addition to the guidance indicating that the drug has been excessively discharged, guidance for identifying the drug feeder 86 and the drug feeder mounting portion 80 that have discharged the drug excessively is displayed on the touch panel 14 by the control unit CR. Furthermore, a lock 85 is provided for the drug feeder mounting portion 80 that mounts the drug feeder 86 that has discharged the drug excessively, and for all the drug feeder mounting portions 80 that share the drug feeder mounting portion 80 and the drug guide structure 90. is unlocked by the controller CR.

As a result, the drug packaging machine 10 enters a state in which the excess discharged drug can be manually recovered from the drug guide structure 90.

Therefore, while referring to the display on the touch panel 14, the dispensing operator pulls out the corresponding drug feeder mounting portions 80, 80 from the housing (see FIG. 6A), and the corresponding drug guide structure 90 is also pulled out. Pull it forward from the housing (see FIG. 6(B)), remove the side plate 95 from the medicine guide structure 90 (see FIGS. 6(C), (D), 1(D), and 6(E)). ), the excessively discharged medicine is taken out from the temporary storage structure 97 below the medicine guide structure 90, and the lid 86f of the medicine feeder 86 that has excessively discharged the medicine is opened and closed to return the excessively discharged medicine (FIG. 5(D)). , (E)). As for the temporary storage structure 97 at the lower end of the drug guide structure 90, the temporary storage structure 97 is obliquely viewed from above (see FIG. 6(E)), and the excess discharged drug is removed from the temporary storage structure with tweezers or the like. The lid 86f of the drug feeder 86, which has discharged the drug in excess after it is removed from the portion 97, is opened and closed to return the drug in excess (see FIGS. 5(D) and 5(E)).

Then, when the corresponding medicine guide structure 90 and medicine feeder mounting part 80 are pushed back into the housing, the manual recovery and restoration work is completed, and the medicine packaging machine 10 can resume automatic packaging. become.

Therefore, when the dispensing operator or the like gives an instruction to resume automatic packaging by operating the touch panel 14, in the medicine packaging machine 10, the controller CR detects that the corresponding medicine feeder mounting part 80 is contained in the housing. is confirmed, the lock 85 is locked.

As a result, the medicine feeder storage section 12C is brought into a state in which the medicine feeder mounting section 80 is prevented from being pulled out undesirably, and the medicine packing machine 10 returns to the state when the temporary stop was started, and the control section CR automatically separates the medicine. Packing is resumed.

In this way, even if excessive medicine is discharged from the general-purpose non-cassette type/fixed container type medicine feeder 86, automatic dispensing can be restarted easily without wasting the excessively discharged medicine. .
[others]
In the above embodiment, the electric motor 51 is provided only below the leftmost medicine feeder storage section 12A. It may be located below the drug feeder storage section 12C, or may be installed at both of these locations to share the driving targets.

In the above example, there was no explanation of how to continue automatic packaging without extracting the excessively discharged medicine when excessive medicine is discharged. If it is desired to do so, for example, if an immediate resumption is instructed on the touch panel 14, the automatic packaging operation is resumed from the retry of packaging at that time, and a marker or tag is attached to the excessively discharged drug package. It is preferable to add a record of the defect by, for example,

In the above embodiment, the drug packaging machine did not incorporate a manual drug distribution device (tablet manual distribution device). reference). In that case, although it is not essential, if the manual drug-dispensing device is arranged next to the temporary storage structure storage section 50, it can be mounted compactly even under the condition that the device can be drawn forward.

According to the present invention, when the medicine is excessively discharged from the general-purpose medicine feeder, the excessively discharged medicine or the like is retained in the temporary storage structure in accordance with the detection, and the excessively discharged medicine is discharged from the temporary storage structure. By performing a series of controls that allow manual extraction, even if automatic dispensing is temporarily stopped, undesirable packaging can be easily and accurately avoided. Moreover, the excess discharged medicine extracted at that time can be returned to the original medicine feeder before pushing back the feeder storage section, so that it is not wasted. As a result, even if a fixed general-purpose drug feeder is mounted on the container in addition to the cassette detachable drug feeder, it is possible to provide the user with a sufficient sense of security.

5 ... drug (tablet),
10... Drug packaging machine,
10A ... housing,
11... Chemical cabinet, 11a... Side plate,
12... Medicine feeder storage part, 12a... Medicine feeder loading avoidance part,
12A... Medicine feeder storage part (electric motor arrangement side, cassette type feeder installed),
12B... Medicine feeder storage part (electric motor non-arrangement side, cassette type feeder installed),
12C... Medicine feeder storage part (electric motor non-arrangement side, fixed feeder installed),
13 ... drug feeder (cassette feeder, specific drug type drug feeder),
13a... Base part (driving part), 13b... Cassette, 13c... Compartment,
13d... partition member, 14... touch panel (operation input section, display section),
20... Drug guide structure,
21 : front portion of the upper end and intermediate portion, 22 : front portion of the lower end,
23... Center or rear part of the lower end 24... Drug guide path sliding plate,
25... Drug guide path sliding opening, 26... Drug feeder non-mounting portion,
30... Drug collection structure, 40... Packaging device,
50 ... Temporary storage structure storage unit,
51... Electric motor, 52... Cam mechanism, 53... Prong (cam), 54... Follower (follower),
60 Temporary storage structure,
61... Box frame, 62... Swash plate, 63... Opening/closing member, 63a... Opening,
64... Support shaft, 64a... Transmission shaft (support shaft), 64b... Rear cam mechanism,
70 ... link mechanism (transmission mechanism),
71... Connecting member, 72... Pivoting member,
72a... rocking end portion, 72b... rocking fulcrum portion, 74... urging spring,
80 ... drug feeder storage unit,
81... Handle, 82... Drawer member, 83... Pivoting plate, 84... Front plate, 85... Lock,
86 ... drug feeder (general-purpose drug feeder),
86a... Inclined rotating body, 86b... Annular rotating body,
86c...Regulation member, 86d...Drop discharge port, 86e...Photo sensor, 86f...Lid,
90... Drug guide structure,
91...main body part, 92...medicine receiving port, 93...handle, 94...side plate holding member,
95... Side plate, 96... Drawer mechanism, 97... Temporary storage structure, 98... Hooking member.

Claims (9)

1. a housing;
   a plurality of drug feeders that store drugs and sequentially discharge the drugs; and a drug feeder storage unit that stores the plurality of drug feeders;
   A plurality of drug guide structures respectively provided corresponding to the drug feeder storage unit for guiding the drug discharged from the plurality of drug feeders included in the drug feeder storage unit to one outlet located below. When,
   a plurality of drug feeder storage units in which the drug feeder storage unit and the drug guide structure are accommodated;
   a drug collecting structure disposed below the plurality of drug guiding structures in the housing for collecting drugs dropped from the plurality of drug guiding structures;
   a packaging device provided below the drug collecting structure in the housing for separately packaging the drug discharged from the drug collecting structure;
   A control unit for controlling the operation of the plurality of drug feeders and the packaging device,
   The medicine feeder storage unit included in one medicine feeder storage part of the plurality of medicine feeder storage parts has a container part and a sequential discharge mechanism part on a plurality of stages of drawer racks that can be separately pulled out vertically. includes a plurality of drug feeder mounting parts each mounted with a plurality of general-purpose drug feeders integrated with
   When all of the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions are pulled out, the drug guide provided corresponding to the drug feeder storage unit including the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions among the plurality of drug guiding structures. In a drug packaging machine in which the structure is also allowed to be pulled out from the housing,
   The drug collection structure is provided from the drug guide structure to the drug collection structure at the lower end portion of the drug guide structure provided corresponding to the drug feeder storage unit including the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions among the plurality of drug guide structures. A temporary storage structure is provided to temporarily store and collect the drugs that fall into the
   the controller is configured to also control the operation of the temporary storage structure;
   When it is detected during the packaging operation that the medicine feeder included in the medicine feeder storage unit including the plurality of medicine feeder mounting portions has excessively discharged the medicine, the controller temporarily suspends the packaging operation. While stopping and causing the temporary storage structure to maintain the detained state, the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions included in the drug feeder storage unit of the corresponding drug guiding structure are allowed to be pulled out, and then the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions are allowed to be pulled out. is detected that the medicine feeder mounting part of (1) has been pulled out of and pushed back from the housing, permitting the resuming of the packaging operation.
2. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 1, further comprising a display member, wherein when the excessive discharge of the medicine is detected, a guide for notifying the relevant medicine feeder is displayed on the display member.
3. When operating power is turned on and during other initial operations, the control unit causes the medicine feeders included in the medicine feeder storage unit including the plurality of medicine feeder mounting parts to carry out the medicine discharge operation without waiting for an instruction of the packaging operation. 3. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the packaging device is caused to perform the packaging operation.
4. Also below the plurality of drug feeder storage units included in the plurality of drug feeder storage sections other than the one drug feeder storage section among the plurality of drug feeder storage sections, from the corresponding plurality of drug guide structures A plurality of temporary storage structure units are provided for temporarily storing and collectively dropping the drug falling into the drug collection structure in the storage unit,
   further comprising a drive mechanism for driving the plurality of temporary storage structures,
   A lower front portion of the inner wall portion of at least one of the plurality of drug guiding structures is located behind a front portion of an upper end portion of the inner wall portion of the drug guiding structure. cage,
   a front end of the storage portion of the temporary storage structure portion is positioned rearward from a front surface of the housing;
   2. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 1, wherein an electric motor for applying closing driving force or opening driving force to said driving mechanism is positioned in front of said storing section.
5. A plurality of the drug feeder storage units are arranged side by side in the housing,
   A transmission shaft extending back and forth along the reservoir of one of the temporary storage structures provided for the drug guide structure in any one of the plurality of drug feeder storages is provided,
   a transmission mechanism for transmitting the motion of the transmission shaft to a plurality of opening and closing mechanisms provided for the plurality of drug feeder storage portions is provided behind the storage portion inside the housing;
   2. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 1, wherein said electric motor drives said transmission shaft.
6. In front of the storage part of one of the temporary storage structure parts corresponding to the drug collection structure of the drug feeder storage part positioned most laterally in the housing among the plurality of drug feeder storage parts 6. A medicine packaging machine according to claim 5, characterized in that an electric motor is located.
7. The medicine packaging machine according to claim 6, characterized in that the transmission shaft serves as a support shaft of the opening/closing mechanism in the temporary storage structure.
8. A cam mechanism for converting one rotation of the output shaft of the electric motor into a reciprocating rotation of the transmission shaft is provided between the electric motor and the transmission shaft, and the transmission mechanism is composed of a link mechanism. 8. The drug packaging machine according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein
9. An opening/closing mechanism for the temporary storage structure portion provided at the lower end portion of the drug guide structure provided corresponding to the drug feeder storage unit including the plurality of drug feeder mounting portions by the link mechanism of the transmission mechanism. 6. The drug packaging machine according to claim 5, wherein is driven by

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